Come all you fair and tender ladies
Take warning how you court young men
They're like bright stars of a summer's morning
First they'll appear and then be gone.

They'll tell to you some loving story
They will declare their love is true
Straightway they'll go and court some other
And that's the love that they have for you.

If I had known before I courted,
That love had been so hard to win,
I'd have locked my heart in a box of golden,
And a-fastened if up with a silver pin.

I wish I were a little sparrow
Or some of those that fly so high
I'd fly away to my false lover
And when he'd talk I would be nigh.

But as it is, I am no sparrow
And neither have I wings to fly
I'll sit down here in grief and sorrow
I'll weep and pass my troubles by.

abc | midi | pdf

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Source: Karples, M (1968) Eighty English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians London, Faber and Faber

Notes:
Sung by Mrs Jane Gentry.
The text has been compiled from two other versions.

Roud: 451 (Search Roud index at VWML)
Laws:
Child: